Caspak

Tarzan is in the Kasbah looking for leads to his wife Jane who was taken by Germans. After meeting a man who had no information he is contacted by French intelligence. They want to use him in exposing a group of traitors selling secrets to the Germans. Soon after the head of intelligence is murdered and Tarzan is battling the traitors with the help of an Englishman who had come to strip Tarzan of his title and fortune for the war effort.

THE FALLEN A TALE OF PELLUCIDAR by Mercedes Lackey

A story told by Mok who is an intelligent Sagoth in the service of David Innes. Mok was experimented on by the Mahars and is the only intelligent Sagoth. While visiting Kolk the king of Thuria in the Land of Awful Shadow a woman with wings falls from the sky. She is an inhabitant of the Dead World. Her people are under attack by the Mahars who have fled to the moon after being defeated. Mok is the only one who can communicate with her since she uses the same language as the Mahars. They have an adventure with a storm and hostile island natives. The woman falls in love with the kings son.

SCORPION MEN OF VENUS by Richard A. Lupoff

Carson and Duare are under attack by scorpion men and flying snakes when they are rescued by a mysterious flying ship. It takes them to a complex run by Dr. Bodog and his daughter and son. Bodog comes from Earth and the continent that sank in the Pacific ocean centuries ago. He is also insane and plans to take over the Earth. He goes back with Carson and his daughter who Carson has fallen in love with and land in Los Angeles during a football game.

THE FORGOTTEN SEA OF MARS by Mike Resnick

The writer is in an Arizona cabin that was used by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He meets John Carter and convinces him to tell the story after he defeated Hin Abtol. So Carter starts the search for Tan Hadron who disappeared when mutineers took him. From criminals in Zodanga he learns of another underground sea at the north pole. In the city of Ayathor he finds Hin Abtol continuing his plans of world conquest with another large army of men frozen. He finds Tan Hadron and with another rebel manage to overthrow him.

APACHE LAWMAN by Ralph Roberts

Shoz-Djiji the Apache Devil has settled down in the white man’s world. He manages the ranch of his love Wichita Billings. One day Marshal Fast Sam Dawson comes and offers Shoz a job as a deputy sheriff. Seems another renegade Apache has learned from the white-eyes and plans to take over the territorial government. He manages to stop his plans.

MOON MAID OVER MANHATTAN by Peter David

The story of Nah-ee-lah when she came to Earth. At first she is a celebrity and hounded by the press. Later the Kalkars those commie moon men invade. When her husband dies while killing Orthis she and her young son hide out in Canada. They are pursued by Orthis’s woman and her son for revenge.

TARZAN AND THE MARTIAN INVADERS by Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt

Tarzan is at his English manor when he comes across writing from his ancestor who sailed with Drake. He finds out that Martians are coming to invade in Africa where he was born and raised. He goes back and gathers the apes and other animals to fight these tentacled invaders who can control the minds of men.

THE TWO BILLYS A MUCKER STORY by Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens

Billy Byrne has made the ultimate sacrifice by leaving his love Barbara Harding. He soon after gets a message from her that her fiance was kidnapped. So Billy goes off into the Chicago underworld to get him back.

TO THE NEAREST PLANET as told to Todd McCaffrey

The author buys an old typewriter and Edgar Rice Burroughs used. It starts typing and tells the story of Tangor and his trip from Poloda to find another world free of Kapars. The first world they come to Tonos. This world was destroyed in a war and now run by a computer. The remaining people are dying off until he educates them on how to run the machines on the world.

THE DEAD WORLD as related by David Innes to F. Paul Wilson via Gridley wave

David Innes is visiting Thuria when a meteor strikes. It releases a deadly spore that soon takes over the Land of Awful Shadow and starts spewing poisonous gas. David with Perry and Koort the young son of the king of Thuria go by balloon to the Dead World. They find out that the moon is really an artificial ship created by ancient aliens that created Pellucidar. Now they are returning and terraforming Pellucidar. David and friend have to battle cleaning robots to stop the plan.

TARZAN AND THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT by Joe R. Lansdale

Tarzan is coming back from Pellucidar in the O-220 when a story blows the ship to the southern hemisphere and crashes into the ocean. The only survivors are Tarzan, Captain Zuppner and a young Pellucidarian girl named Zamona. The make it to Caspak and battle cannibals that fly pterodactyls. Zuppner and Zamona decide to stay as Tarzan searches for a way home.

This was a cool idea for an anthology. Getting a bunch of writer together and put out stories from the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs. They manage to cover all the base with not only Tarzan and John Carter but Pellucidar and Venus. They also get stories from Burrough’s lesser know works like the Moon Men, Apache Devil the Mucker and Caspak. They even had the continuing story from Beyond the Farthest Star. Many of the writers did a good job of emulating Burroughs. Even using the various first person narratives. Some like the martian invaders or the second Pellucidar story did not feel like something Burroughs would have written but were still entertaining.

The only story I didn’t care for was Lupoff’s Carson story. It was very un-Burroughs like to have Carson and Duare so quickly fall out of love. The romance that Burroughs wrote was one of the strong points to his writing and he just casually has them switch partners. It also just ended like it was only halfway through the story. I suppose there might be a continuation but I found it a complete waste of time. In spite of this story the others made this book a worthy effort.

Bradley an Englishman from the captured U-boat was leading an expedition to explore Caspak. While standing guard one night he is captured by strange men with bat wings. He is taken to an island in the inland sea. There in the city of skulls he finds himself prisoner of the Weiroo in the land of Oo-oh.

The Weiroo are the most advanced race in Caspak but somewhat of a dead end in the evolutionary scheme of things. The Weiroo are all male and must capture human females from the mainland to mate. The offspring are always male so they are always trying to find the secret to producing a female Weiroo.

Bradley meets Co-tan a female captive from the mainland. Together they escape the city and are able to capture two Weiroo. They force them to fly them to the mainland. There Bradley reunites with Bowen, Tom Billings and the crews of the U-boat and rescue expedition. All the survivors leave Caspak with the heroes marrying their respective loves.

The final book in the Caspak trilogy. It was probably the most interesting book. I thought that Caspak was a unique and exciting creation of Burroughs. The story was tied up neatly at the end. I was familiar with the stories from the Doug McClure movies and was not disappointed with the books.

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Tom Billings is the best friend of Bowen Tyler. When he gets his message from the last book he mounts a rescue expedition. They find Caspak and Tom flies over the cliffs in a seaplane that he brought along. It is immediately attacked by a pterodactyl and he crash lands.

He rescues a beautiful woman named Ajor from a band of ape men. The two set out to return her to her people the Galus(rope men) farther up the river. They pass through the Bo-lu(club men),Sto-lu(hatchet men),Band-lu(spear men), and the Kro-lu(bow men). Each represent a more advanced human in the scale of evolution.

It is later discovered that life in Caspak goes through stages of metamorphosis after a period of time. Tom and Ajor eventually reach the fully human land of the Galus. There he meets his friend Bowen and the crew from his rescue expedition who scaled the cliffs.

The second in the trilogy is another excellent book. We get to find out the secret of the evolutionary phenomenon of Caspak. There is still one more book to tie up loose ends which will be discussed later.

The third Burroughs movie made in the seventies combined elements from the second and third book. It starred Patrick Wayne, John Wayne’s son and saw the return of Doug McClure. I think this is the best of the three movies.

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A man vacationing in Greenland comes across a bottle floating in the ocean. He retrieves it and finds a message with an incredible story.

Bowen Tyler Jr. has volunteered for the British ambulance service in 1915. While traveling across the Atlantic his ship is hit and sunk by a torpedo from a German U-boat. Bowen and his Airedale Nobs survive and are later picked up by a British tugboat along with another survivor, a beautiful woman. The tugboat is attacked later by the same U-boat and the crew manages the take the U-boat with the loss of the tugboat.

Now the crew is trapped on the U-boat. With no radio they can’t signal and are attacked by any British warship. After harrowing adventures were the German crew retakes and loses the boat, it drifts into the south Atlantic. Low on supplies the ship comes upon a mysterious island near the Antarctic. The island is surrounded by steep cliffs but an underwater passage is navigable by the sub.

Beyond the cliffs is a prehistoric land with savage dinosaurs and even more savage men. As they progress upstream the animal and plant life seem to advance on the evolutionary scale. The German and British crew form a truce and build a fort. Finding crude oil they hope to refine to escape Caspak as the savage inhabitants call this land.

Bowen is leading a party of men in exploration when they are attacked by the prehistoric inhabitants. He is separated from the others and writes the account. He climbs to the cliff top and hurls it into the ocean hoping someone will find it and rescue him.

Well if you haven’t guessed this book is the inspiration for my blog title. The first in the Caspak trilogy is an exciting adventure filled with dinosaurs and cavemen. I am a sucker for anything with dinosaurs in it. The one thing that mars this book is the portrayal of the Germans. This was just after America entered the war and the Germans are portrayed as cruel, stupid and bloodthirsty. Von Schoenvorts the captain is a stereotypical Prussian. He exists to cruise around and sink any ship neutral or allied just for the hell of it. This makes no sense but does illustrated the mentality of America during the early years of the war.

There was a movie with Doug McClure made in the seventies. It is cheezy but fun to watch and very faithful to the original book.

Thirty years later the Asylum made a movie that is no less cheezier and a much looser adaptation of the book. For an Asylum film it is pretty good.